Good green day (not green light day!) in the Ogden Mountains. Snow is generally right-side up for the full 44" of snow as reported by the weather station.

Riming was present on the hike up (photo 1). Stomped on some test slopes and got the top 5" of snow to sluff, but that was it. No cracking or other signs of instability.

As we ascended out of the clouds, widespread surface hoar was evident on all aspects (photo 2). Crystals are still small. Incoming storm may help beat these down, but something to watch out for.

Once we reached Dead Tree, a skier's or snowboarder's track down the main headwall of Ben Lomond from the summit was evident. This rider had kicked off two sluffs on their descent. Tracks exited the basin at the bottom and continued back to the cars. Still early season for that slope but rock on.

Dug a NW-facing pit at 8,000' and saw initially right side up snow the whole way from the ground at 1F to the top of total fluff (photo 4). Compression tests showed some interesting cracking a few inches down but no propagation (photo 5) at ECT17. Being a pit newbie, decided to look at this a little closer. Turns out there was a sun crust about 10" down. I didn't feel the density change through my glove, but it was evident using bare hands. Dug out the area (photo 6). Any attempts to break this layer happened very locally, almost breaking into pieces rather than pulling out.

We took a less than 30 degree descent on the way down, and this crust layer was evident on the North-to-Northwest aspects (skis and boards were "slipping" on this layer on the descent).

Clouds cleared out of the valleys by 2PM. Winds were calm along the ascent. No wind plumes visible on the summit.